Life is too short to clean a home! That’s why, a proficient team in cleaning and home maintenance like housekeeping service providers, comes as ‘glorified souls’, making every inch effort to deliver all associated services and keep your home neat, clean while preserving the hygiene of the premises. They are like a support system equipped with numerous helping hands to serve you – anytime anywhere, but, due to the lack of skilled human resource availability, it is almost backbreaking to acquire quality service.

However, India has a great potential for manpower but they are not well-regulated, which upshots in experiencing scarcity of trained and qualified workers. Henceforth, there is a drive for the starring role that can utilize the available abilities and present a support system for the community. The start-up founders are like an eager beaver, often focused on bringing the solution for unceasing issues in a unique way. But it is no piece of cake to create trust among the people and make them think about how they can maintain their home needs. With the aim to clean people’s worries away by creating a trust and bond with them, the Grand Resource Factory was incorporated. It is a group of people who are interested in support – not just in cleaning and maintaining a home, but they are in contributing their self in a way that will support the people. Today, it stands as a premium name engaged in offering a wide assortment of housekeeping services, support staff services, and facility management solutions. Here, every endeavour is directed towards providing the top-quality services and solutions.

CEO of Grand Resource Factory, Anshul Khurana, spoke to The CEO Magazine about what it takes to build the best support system for manpower and his professional journey in the association. Anshul a management graduate from the Indian school of business (ISB) is a result-oriented leader having experience in diverse roles including research, product management, business development, and market strategy.

Here, Anshul gives an insight into his professional career, the formation of the company, its offerings and more. Here are some of the edited excerpts.

When and how did you decide to choose the entrepreneurial path in the Housekeeping industry?

Back in 2015, we initiated working on a venture to organize the forum for domestic workers. It seems like an excellent opportunity and virtually supportive for the urban household. We got to touch base with a number of housekeepers and understand the housekeeping/facility management industry. With a view of the personnel issues, and the fact that the housekeeping industry is still unorganized in an economy wherein infrastructure development is rapid, we set up an integrated facility management business with housekeeping and other allied services in January 2016 with the brand name, SARA.

How you became involved in the company and your progression?

I got in touch with the founders who were operating on a domestic services concept in October 2015 and got a chance to understand their vision of building a transparent people’s organization with social values. I shared values with them and saw a massive opportunity in the industry and I, therefore, came on board as the Co-founder and CEO in November 2015 and have been building this organization from thereon.

To begin, how is your brand-defining “trust” in the industry? What’s your competitive advantage that can’t be copied?

For us, trust comes from two key elements; operational response processes and employee engagement and welfare mechanisms. We focus on these two elements to ensure that our clients, as well as our employees, can trust us. Our biggest competitive advantage is our business model. We have an integrated business model that includes training and skill development, employee verification, integrated facility management, staffing and household services

The association has grown close to a 1000 people in just over three years since November 2015. We are functioning across Maharashtra, Delhi/NCR, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Jharkhand and expanding quickly to other areas. We attribute the growth to our business model and the talented team of individuals.

Our vision is for our brand to be a unique symbol for “Dignity of Labour” and an epitome of “Customer Delight”.

Who are your clients? How did you build a client culture around your services?

Some of our key clients are Society Tea, Prism Johnson, OYO, Redbrick Offices, Writer Corporation, Rohan Builders and Shalimar Builders. We stress on creating a perfect client culture from the first day when a person comes into our organization. We conduct a learning series internally with a focus on topics like customer centricity to train managers so that they can be able to pass on the culture to their team members.

What is your proudest moment with the company?

My proudest moment with the company was when we were able to reach out to secluded rural areas and offer our training programs to the tribal population to develop them and help them get jobs.

Future Agenda

We are focusing on geographical expansion to other parts of the country. Our focus would be beyond just the Tier-I cities to look at expanding services to state capitals and other Tier-II cities. We will focus to continue the growth rate of 100% for the next few years.

What do you know today that you wish you would have known when you first got started as an entrepreneur?

In the starting phase, I wanted to do things in a flash. But operation on the core model to gather feedback from key stakeholders and building the right base for development takes time. At this moment, I understand that speed is essential, yet building the right base needs some time.

What are some strategies that you would recommend for making the best use of one’s time?

The imperative strategy for me has been to keep track of everything on the document. Plan meetings and keep things on schedule. A little bit of preparation at the end of each day makes the best use of the time for the next day.

What’s your take on the mounting demand for housekeeping services in India?

The housekeeping or the larger facility management industry is closely linked to the overall economic and infrastructure development of a country. It is also a great employment opportunity at the base of the pyramid. As an industry, we would need to increase the focus on skill development to reach a stage where Indian workers are recognized for their quality and professionalism.

Dynamic Leadership

Rajitha Anil Abraham

Managing Director

Rajitha is a seasoned professional from a reputed hospitality background and is well inclined to social causes and has the ability to connect with the grass root level. She is the custodian of governance and compliances at GRF.